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Friday Mourning Frenzy

I will remain in “mourning” so long as Obama’s unworthy ass sits in the Oval Office.

Quote of the day:

The power of accurate observation is commonly called cynicism by those who have not got it. ~ George Bernard Shaw

After declaring bankruptcy a few months ago, Hostess announced that Twinkies will soon be returning to store shelves, but now they’ll be 10% smaller. Ah… the perfect metaphor for Obama’s “recovery”.

3 Interesting Stories:

#1

Cynic-in-Chief

by Jonah Goldberg

“My rival in this race,” President Obama announced early in 2007, “is not other candidates. It’s cynicism.” Sadly, it’s now evident cynicism won.

In a much-hyped speech at Knox College on Wednesday, Obama sought to pivot back to the economy — as the journalistic cliché goes — and shape the issue environment for the 2014 congressional elections.

Because of an “endless parade of distractions and political posturing and phony scandals,” the president said, “Washington’s taken its eye off the ball.” The ball here is the economy, in case you didn’t know.

It’s an odd claim. Elected twice, Obama is in the fifth year of his presidency. During his first two years in office, his party controlled both houses of Congress and rammed through its agenda. Largely as a result, Democrats lost the House in 2010, but they have retained the Senate, where Majority Leader Harry Reid has been playing the Igor to Obama’s Dr. Frankenstein ever since (though reporters have yet to catch Reid actually saying “Yetthhhh master” on tape). At Obama’s bidding, the Senate failed to pass a budget for four years and refused to take up any meaningful legislation passed by the House.

That’s not the narrative you usually hear, because for most of Obama’s presidency, the Washington press corps was enthralled with him. It wasn’t until the dawn of his second term that most reporters stopped asking questions like, “Can you create a boulder too heavy for you to lift?”

It’s also odd that Obama has pivoted back to the economy when, depending on whose estimates you use, he’s made similar “pivots” on average once every 2-4 months since he’s been elected. As one wag told the Weekly Standard, “You do that on the basketball court, you get called for traveling.” But the more apt image is of a basketball player with one shoe nailed to the floor, constantly pivoting in a circle.

But it’s not just odd, it’s deeply cynical. For starters, it was the re-elected president — not “Washington” — who took his eyes off the economy to exploit a tragedy for new gun controls that would not have prevented the tragedy itself. His unilateral crackdown on carbon emissions isn’t exactly a full-throated effort to create jobs either. When Congress took its eye off the ball by taking up immigration reform, the White House cheered.

Even now, the Cynic-in-Chief admits that his “highest priority” is neither economic growth nor job creation, but reducing income inequality. In fairness, he says he wants to reduce inequality through something called “middle-out” economic growth taxing the wealthy (again). But my hunch is that the highest priority for those without work is … work. While the president’s highest priority is to exploit resentments.

#2

Losing the Plot

Why coverage of Obama is so boring.

by James Taranto

Remember the summer of 2011, when the left seemed to be losing its patience with Barack Obama? Weakened by his politically inept handling of the debt-ceiling confrontation, the president seemed lost. The criticism of him, as we noted at the time, was that he had failed to tell “a story the American people were waiting to hear–and needed to hear,” as one Drew Westen put it. The word “narrative” got bandied about a lot.

Well, plus ça change. Once again Obama is floundering about, this time trying to divert attention from a series of scandals, including one that calls into question the legitimacy of his re-election. The president is so lost that, as PJMedia’s Bridget Johnson notes, press secretary Jay Carney admits his boss has been forced to resort to celestial navigation: “Carney said Obama will focus on ‘what the North Star is when it comes to moving our economy forward.’ ”

Wow, talk about polarizing.

One thing that was weird about the 2011 demands for “stories” and “narratives” is that they came largely from journalists or other professional writers–that is, from people who make a living by telling stories. You would think a journalist who sees the need for a narrative would do his job and write one instead of leaving it to the politicians.

#3

Secret demands mark escalation in Internet surveillance by the federal government through gaining access to user passwords, which are typically stored in encrypted form.

The U.S. government has demanded that major Internet companies divulge users’ stored passwords, according to two industry sources familiar with these orders, which represent an escalation in surveillance techniques that has not previously been disclosed.

If the government is able to determine a person’s password, which is typically stored in encrypted form, the credential could be used to log in to an account to peruse confidential correspondence or even impersonate the user. Obtaining it also would aid in deciphering encrypted devices in situations where passwords are reused.

“I’ve certainly seen them ask for passwords,” said one Internet industry source who spoke on condition of anonymity. “We push back.”

A second person who has worked at a large Silicon Valley company confirmed that it received legal requests from the federal government for stored passwords. Companies “really heavily scrutinize” these requests, the person said. “There’s a lot of ‘over my dead body.'”

Commentary:

Attorney General Eric Holder never uttered the words “Trayvon Martin” or “George Zimmerman” in his remarks today at the convention of the Urban League in Philadelphia. But his address, in which he vowed to impose “preclearance” procedures on the state of Texas in order to prevent it from making any changes in voting procedures without the express permission of the Department of Justice, must be viewed in the context of a liberal drive to take advantage of the “conversation” on race that so many on the left have urged upon the country in the aftermath of the verdict in the Zimmerman trial.

Holder’s actions are primarily a response to the Supreme Court’s decision to reaffirm the Voting Rights Act while mandating that Congress redraw the map that determines which jurisdictions must get advance permission from the DOJ without the latter having to go to court first, rather than merely going by the outdated one drawn up in 1965.

But there’s little doubt that Holder and the left are hoping the hysteria that race merchants like Al Sharpton have helped stir up in the last two weeks will help them turn public opinion on the question of voter ID laws that are at the heart of the federal attack on Texas.

The Martin case has been cited by many liberals who have sought to argue that the Court’s majority was somehow wrong to rule that the America of 2013 is nothing like the one that existed in 1965. The tone of much of the commentary from the left, including that of President Obama on the Zimmerman case, has been to insist that for all of the obvious progress made, the death of Martin proves we are essentially no better off in terms of racism that we were in the pre-Voting Rights Act era. But like the post-trial discussion that ignored the actual facts of the trial, Holder’s assertion that voter ID laws are, by definition, proof of discrimination is not only disingenuous; it’s flat out false.

The attorney general’s decision to go to court against Texas gives the lie to much of the fulminations from the administration about the decision in Shelby v. Holder. Far from easing the way toward a new era of Jim Crow, the court reaffirmed the Voting Rights Act’s safeguards against discrimination but merely said that the DOJ could not preempt the judicial process without a necessary re-write of the act based on the realities of contemporary America rather than one based on the situation in 1965.

Thus, Holder is perfectly free to sue in federal court to stop Texas from doing anything he deems discriminatory.

Don’t that just say it all?

Unintended Consequences:

Over a dozen birds that normally live by the water have been found dead at the construction site of a major solar power plant in the Mojave Desert, The Desert Sun reports.

In May, a dead Yuma clapper rail bird was found on site. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service spokeswoman Jane Hendron said it was “absolutely unforeseen” that an endangered bird like the Yuma clapper rail, which lives in river marshes, could be found “anywhere near” the Desert Sunlight plant.

A diving duck — hardly the kind of animal which roams southern California’s deserts — was also found at the plant in April but died before it could be saved.

“Across the country, environmentalists are finding themselves in the awkward position of having to choose between clean energy and wildlife,” Mother Jones reported in 2011.

Sometimes, all too many times, people get their undies in a bundle and out of anger or outrage are willing, no insisting, on throwing the baby out with the bathwater. This appears to be one of those times.

Awwww, sounds to me like “Maddy” was just jealous that she wasn’t getting some of that media attention and wanted her “15 minutes.” Also sounds like she’s not all that bright. What possible purpose does she think this serves other than to keep the racial unrest pot boiling? Other than getting her “15 minutes” of course.

Media Malpractice:

NPR: Sexual Harassment Deserves Immediate and Full Coverage…Sometimes

NPR in general and their legal affairs/Supreme Court correspondent Nina Totenberg in particular want the public to believe that they view sexual harassment charges against public figures as a very important issue that demands immediate and full coverage. The reality: they behave that way only if the accused has a Republican party identification.

The most recent evidence of that: the reporting on the charges of sexual harassment and sexual assault by San Diego’s current Democratic mayor and former 20-year U.S. Congressman Bob Filner. In the two weeks following the initial disclosure of the accusations July 11, which was followed by named accusers coming forward July 22, 23 and 24, NPR has aired a grand total of two pieces on the matter. The first occurred a full five days after the accusations first came out, on July 16 (even The New York Times reported it July 12). And both pieces were done by a public radio journalist in San Diego who doesn’t even work for NPR.

In neither piece did the reporter seek out Senator Barbara Boxer about the charges against a fellow California Democrat, given that Boxer ran for the Senate in large measure on the charge that the Senate didn’t seriously consider Anita Hill’s allegations against Clarence Thomas (and which was frequently mentioned by NPR in pieces on Boxer’s 1992 Senate bid).

NPR is nothing more than an arm of the Democrat Party. Therefore they are nothing but liars, thieves and hypocrites. And those are their good points. As for Nina Tottenberg, I am ashamed to share a gender with such a POS.

Cockroach Of The Day:

Nicole Avant

A Failed Celebr-Ambassador Returns to Washington

by Michelle Malkin

Welcome to another installment of No Obama Bundler Left Behind. This chapter stars an elite Hollywood fundraiser who scored a plum diplomatic appointment, slacked off on the job and left her public office in disgrace, and then rebounded from failure as a new Obamacare promoter. Nice crony “work” if you can get it.

This failed celebr-ambassador is Nicole Avant. Her father, Clarence Avant, is a prominent Democratic activist and music executive. Her husband, Ted Sarandos, is the chief content officer at Netflix. Her godfather is music legend Quincy Jones.

The liberal glam squad members all have agreed to spread Obamacare propaganda to the masses.Avant, billed as an “Obama administration veteran” by The Hollywood Reporter, represented “industry” at the Ministry of Health Care Misinformation meeting this week.

The Wrap, another Hollywood gossip outlet, describes Avant as having been “tasked with helping boost Obama’s relationship with Hollywood.”

But what exactly has this “veteran” accomplished? What are her qualifications? How has she used taxpayer dollars, and what exactly is her “industry”?

By all appearances, the industry of Nicole Avant is Nicole Avant. The Beverly Hills socialite and “power player” has appeared in highbrow magazines like “Uptown” with glossy photo spreads of her 1-percenter mansion — designed, we must all be made aware, by Max Azria.

Avant’s personal website describes her as a “businesswoman,” but her biography mentions no actual business. Instead, Avant exults from a privileged 90210 childhood attending “elite soirees, charitable events and political fundraisers.”

Avant’s official biography includes the following anecdote:

“One time, when I was in grade school, I told my teacher that Gov. Jerry Brown of California had been over. She responded in disbelief, asking, ‘What was the governor doing at your house?’ Avant replied, ‘Just talking with my dad.”

And that brings us to Avant’s “qualifications.” As a member of Obama’s 2008 Los Angeles fundraising team, Avant used her family connections to help drum up some $21 million in campaign cash. She and her husband drummed up at least $500,000 for the Obama campaign during the last election cycle.

First lady Michelle Obama recently gushed that Avant was a “dear friend” and “pretty phenomenal woman.”Money can buy love. And ambassadorships.

In the fall of 2009, Avant was appointed ambassador to the Bahamas. The State Department inspector general, alas, didn’t have the same warm, tingly feelings for Avant that the Obamas do. The IG’s scathing report blasted her jet-setting tenure, which the watchdog described as “an extended period of dysfunctional leadership and mismanagement.” Avant, true to the Obama way, blamed problems “inherited” from the previous administration.

But Avant, and Avant alone, was responsible for her chronic absenteeism. She was gone from the office 276 days between September 2009 and November 2011. The IG concluded bluntly: “Her extensive travel out of country and preference to work from the ambassador’s residence for a significant portion of the workday contributed to a perception of indifference. … The frequent absences of the ambassador contributed to poor mission management.”

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